New Delhi, April 26: In a shocking revelation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday clarified that it had not ordered mandatory linkage of Aadhaar and Phone numbers, as stated by the government. The Apex Court said that the government misinterpreted its February 6, 2017, observation and insisted on doing it. For about a year, the government has been citing a Supreme Court ruling to link 12-digit biometric number to mobile number, but the Court judges said they hadn't issued any such direction.

“In the Lokniti Foundation case, the SC has not directed linking of SIM with UID. But the Union government’s circular says so. There was no direction by the court...” Justice D Y Chandrachud during the hearing before a bench that included Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan. The CJI-led bench pointed out that the February 6, 2017, order merely recorded then-Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s submission that Aadhaar was one of the documents used for verification of subscriber identity.

Telecom Department’s order for linking Aadhaar and Mobile numbers

Telecom companies have been harassing their customers to link the two documents to avoid disconnection of services. It must be noted that the telecom department had issued a notification saying that Aadhaar and SIM had to be linked on the direction of the Supreme Court but the Supreme Court had not issued any such direction in that case, said Justices AK Sikri and DY Chandrachud, two of the five judges on the constitution bench hearing a batch of 27 petitions against the identification programme.

Advocate appearing for UIDAI faces a backlash

Reports inform that Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) asked the judges to rule like doctors to save Aadhaar, initially quoted the Supreme Court's verdict from last year by way of an explanation. The judges- Justices A K Sikri and D Y Chandrachud lashed back at him saying that they had read up on the verdict which only recorded the submission of the government and the top court had passed no such orders.

The judges said the verdict only recorded the submission of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that Aadhaar was one of the documents used for verification of subscriber identity.  "There was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as a tool to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users," the bench said.

SC to continue hearing the appeal on Thursday

The bench further asked how the government could impose the condition on service recipients for seeding Aadhaar with mobile phones. Reports inform that the Apex Court on Thursday will continue hearing the appeal filed by many petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar identification system.

To recall, on March 13, the Supreme Court indefinitely extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar with mobile phones, opening bank accounts from March 31, 2018 till the Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra pronounces its final verdict on the validity of the Aadhaar scheme. Before this, the government issued a notification to extend till March 31 the deadline for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar and Permanent Account Number (PAN) for bank accounts and certain financial transactions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 09:08 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).